SAFC’s (Sigma-Aldrich Corporation) solid-state R&D business, Pharmorphix, will team up with the manufacturer of chiral structural determination tools and separation services, to provide “end-to-end” tools and services they say will accelerate timelines to market.
Adrian St. Clair Brown, General Manager at SAFC Pharmorphix, told Outsourcing-Pharma.com the company had teamed up with BioTools because it has the most “cutting-edge” technology on the market, especially for the “structural determination of small molecules.”
“In addition to SAFC’s traditional technology offer, BioTools features Vibrational Circular Dichroism (VCD), a spectroscopy technology for determining the stereochemistry of a molecule in solution. This technique does not require the active pharmaceutical to be crystalline, and therefore it complements the services that we were already providing to our clients.”
Chiral drugs
SAFC said it will bring to the partnership its x-ray diffraction technology, used to determine the stereochemistry of a molecule. This technology determines the absolute stereochemistry of small molecules using single crystals.
This is critical in pharmaceutical compounds to ensure the enantiomer in the drug product is effective and safe for patients.
Brown told us the joined-up service is aimed at customers throughout the drug development process, with a focus on the pre-clinical stage. SAFC Pharmophix will offer it on a fee-for-service basis.
SAFC’s recently released Q1 results revealed sales in its Commercial division, were up a modest 3% on last year’s first quarter. The company’s CEO Rakesh Sachdev told investors contract manufacturing had been “weak” at the start of 2014 but he expected a comeback in the second quarter.